South African Minister of State Security Dipuo Letsatsi-Duba makes it clear that while the Jewish community is under no particular threat, the department of state security takes seriously its mandate to protect the country’s citizens.

Lawyers are preparing criminal and civil charges following one of the darkest weeks of anti-Semitism in South Africa. There have been a slew of vile incidents that sent shock waves through the community.

The SA Friends of the Beit Halochem Zahal Disabled Veterans Organisation was established in Johannesburg in 1982, its primary goal being to help and support Zahal disabled veterans by raising funds to help them return and resume their normal lives as soon as possible.

Dr Ali Bacher, former South African cricket captain and administrator, was one of the five recipients of the 2018 Steve Tshwete Lifetime Achievement Awards at the SA Sport Awards held in Bloemfontein on Sunday night.

Devotion to the cause of the State of Israel flourishes in the most unlikely places, even in societies where the Jewish presence is small to non-existent. Such is the case in Mozambique, where the work of Beth-El Associacao Crista Amigos De Israel - Mozambican Christian Friends of Israel - testifies to how much can be achieved by those inspired by their Christian faith to promote the Israeli cause, despite adverse conditions.

JNF’s unique “Blue Boy Box” now lives at King David Linksfield Pre-Primary so that children of each generation learn the importance of tzedakah (charity or welfare). It is the responsibility of Jews all over the world to build Israel, develop it and nurture it as the home of the Jewish nation

“Knowledge is Light” was our school motto when I was a child in Durban. The importance of education was made clear to us from as far back as I can remember. It wasn’t taken for granted. A good education was a privilege.

Late on Tuesday, a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas went into effect. While at the time of writing the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) had still not confirmed the existence of such a truce, Israeli citizens living in the south of the country were told they could return home and to “normalcy”.

The Israeli gymnastics team was out in full force at 48th FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Championships that began at Aspire Dome in Doha, Qatar, on Thursday. There are five males and two females in the team headed by new Israeli sensation Artem Dolgopyat. The others are Alexander Shatilov, Ilan Korchak, Andrey Medvedev, and Michael Sorokine, while the women are Ofir Netzer and Meitar Lavy.

As I was heading home on Tuesday, I heard on ChaiFM that 460 rockets had been fired from Gaza into Israel since late Sunday. That is an outrageous number. If every one of them hit inhabited areas, thousands of Israelis would have been killed.

“The president is not directly responsible for acts of domestic terrorism, but he should be more careful with his language.” That’s the way the Economist headlined its report on the horrific Pittsburgh killings just more than two weeks ago.

With Prince William’s historic visit to Israel this week, all eyes have been trained on the Jewish capital. It may have taken 70 years, but the first official visit by a member of the British Royal family began in Israel on Monday, when William, the Duke of Cambridge, arrived in Tel Aviv.

Some 5 600 emissaries (shluchim) from Chabad-Lubavitch from all over the world gathered at the Pier 8 warehouse in Brooklyn, New York this week for the opening of their four-day annual international conference and banquet, 75 years after the arrival of the Lubavitcher Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson, from Europe.

“The greatness of our nation is that our people are great. We are a nation of heroes, of people with good and decent moral fibre who will not tolerate our country being plundered!” So said Chief Rabbi Warren Goldstein in Pretoria this morning.“This is a struggle for accountability and justice,” Goldstein told the crowd (which included prominent Jewish CEOs like Adrian Gore, Stephen Koseff and Michael Katz). “This struggle is about sovereignty. The power of the people always triumphs in the end.”

Israeli athlete misses a second medal by miscounting the laps

Disaster struck an Israeli athlete on Sunday, when she stopped running a lap too early in a European Athletics Championship race, a mistake that prevented her bringing home an almost certain second medal from the games.

by
STUART WINER | Aug 16, 2018

Lonah Chemtai Salpeter was competing in the women’s 5 000m race, and hoping to follow-up on her success last week, when she won a gold medal in the 10 000m event in Berlin, Germany, last Thursday.

Salpeter was in close second place just behind Sifan Hassan from The Netherlands as they finished the penultimate lap. As the runners crossed the line, Salpeter pulled up and veered off course, apparently thinking she had just crossed the finish line to bag a silver medal.

As race officials rang the bell, indicating the start of the final lap, Salpeter realised her error, and sprinted off in a bold attempt to catch the leaders.

The gap, however, proved too large to close and she finished in fourth place, in a time of 15:01. Despite her catastrophic pause, the time was a new Israeli record.

As she crossed the finish line, the frustrated Salpeter collapsed onto the track in tears.

Hassan went on to win the race, with Britain’s Eilish McColgan winning silver, and Yasemin Can taking bronze for Turkey.

Despite her misfortune, she still won praise from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“Lonah Chemtai, you are a true star! You have brought great honour to our country,” he tweeted after the race.

The Kenyan-born Salpeter’s Berlin victory last Thursday marked the first time that Israel took a gold medal at the championships. It also marked a personal victory for the 29-year-old runner, who has fought a difficult battle to represent Israel.

Born in Kenya, she moved to Israel in 2011, and fought to gain citizenship for years.

She originally came to Israel in 2008 as a nanny for a diplomat at the Kenyan embassy. A keen runner, she was introduced to Israeli coach Dan Salpeter, and the two fell in love.

When her stint working for the Kenyan diplomat was up, Chemtai returned to Kenya, where the couple decided to marry in hopes of later moving to Israel. They now have a young son.

Her application for basic residency status was rejected several times. And it was only after she won the Tel Aviv Marathon in February 2016, and broke the qualification time for the Olympics, that she received nationality documents freeing her up to compete for Israel in Rio De Janeiro. She failed to win a medal there, hampered by a shoulder injury. (Times of Israel)